


bewitched

by andnowforyaya



Series: bewitched!kunten [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Nonbinary Character, References to Drugs, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andnowforyaya/pseuds/andnowforyaya
Summary: Kun and Ten move into their starter home outside of the city and throw a housewarming party.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Series: bewitched!kunten [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993462
Comments: 55
Kudos: 257
Collections: Weishen Fest: ANYTHING BUT HUMAN





	bewitched

Kun could feel the sunlight slowly crawling into the room and spilling across their bed. It warmed him, making him want to burrow deeper under the covers and to bury his face between Ten’s shoulder blades. Ten’s skin was smooth and soft under his hands, almost silken, and Kun let out a tiny, breathy laugh when he felt Ten shiver as his fingertips trailed across Ten’s tummy. “Love waking up in bed with you,” Kun murmured into Ten’s skin.

“‘s’not a new experience,” Ten slurred, face smashed into the pillow. Kun couldn’t get over how soft Ten’s skin was this morning, like they’d marinated in body butter all night or something. And their tummy felt a bit squishier than normal, too, though that could have been the pizza they’d ordered last night and the bottle of wine they shared to celebrate officially moving into their new home. 

Ten had been hesitant to move out of the city, but when Kun promised that one of the rooms in their future home could be a studio, all just for Ten, Ten had been the one to take the reins and find them a trustworthy real estate agent. After months of house hunting, they’d finally found the perfect two-story home for their family of two (and with room for their future puppy and three adopted children), nestled right in the middle of suburbia. 

The location was perfect. Not only was the commute into the city for Kun easy since the train station was only a short drive away, but their new home was also far enough from the hustle and bustle of the city for it to feel private and personal to them both, which is what Kun had been hoping for and what Ten had come to realize they’d wanted, too. The quiet stretch of road ended in a cul-de-sac, and trees lined the sidewalks. It was now summer, and during their move-in Kun had noticed how their neighbors took great care in maintaining their window boxes full of flowers, and kept the bright green grass freshly trimmed. He was excited by the idea that now they had a home where _he_ could maintain their window boxes and keep their lawn green and trim.

Kun kissed Ten’s bare shoulder, mouthing at the skin as an afterthought. Ten smelled like sweet coconut almost all the time, no matter what, and the scent made him salivate. “You’re right,” Kun whispered. “But now it’s waking up in bed with you in _our house_ , Tennie.”

Ten hummed in contentment and pushed themself back against Kun. They tugged at Kun’s hand that was wandering over their stomach and urged it higher. “Say that again,” Ten said.

“I love waking up in bed with you in our house, Tennie.” Kun giggled and pressed slow, tender kisses along the curve of Ten’s shoulder as his hand continued its upward path. “I love you. I love our home. I love our lives. I love--” He paused as his hand brushed over a soft mound over Ten’s chest that had definitely not been there last night as they’d fallen asleep. He squeezed, and Ten let out a little exhalation of surprise and pleasure.

“Kun,” Ten whined, legs shifting under the covers. Kun explored the other side of Ten’s chest and found it the same. He squeezed, pinched, and massaged Ten underneath him. “Oh--”

“What’s this?” Kun asked, grinning. “Ten, did you--”

“Thought it’d be fun to break the house in, get into a bit of roleplay with you, baby,” Ten said. Kun didn’t know how it was possible for a voice to sound slinky, but Ten’s did. Slinky and sexy and fun. “You be Daddy and I’ll be Mommy.”

Kun squeezed Ten’s hips with his fingers and relished the breathy moan that fell from Ten’s lips. “I do love when you get these ideas. Turn around.”

Ten turned around in Kun’s arms, and Kun felt his jaw slacken. Ten was beautiful in any form. This morning, gone were the flat chest and narrow hips. Ten’s tits were out because they often went to sleep topless, and as Kun trailed his hand down Ten’s waistline again he could feel how sharply it dipped under their ribs before swelling again into curvy hips. 

“I’m really the luckiest guy in the world,” Kun said, dumbstruck.

“Bet you say that to all the non-binary witches you marry,” Ten said before arching up to kiss him.

.

“We’re out of honey,” Ten said one morning. They were coming out of the pantry while Kun munched on his cereal at the center island in their kitchen, perched on a stool. Kun scrolled through the morning news on his phone, skimming over headlines and articles, and grunted to show that he’d heard, but Ten, dressed in nothing but a long silk robe tied at the waist, huffed in response at the non-answer. Ten stood on the other side of the island, spooning out homemade granola into a bowl and dolloping Greek yogurt on top of it. They drizzled the last of the golden honey over their breakfast before tossing the plastic bear into the bin. “Kun? Did you hear me?”

“Sorry, darling. Did you see this about the sinkhole that appeared overnight by that big park? So lucky no families were around…”

“Yeah, I saw something about that this morning.” Ten mixed their food noisily, the spoon clanging against the sides of the bowl. “It’s probably just bad infrastructure.”

Kun looked up to peer at Ten. Ever since Ten had revealed to him what they were a witch on their third date, the entire world of magic and possibility had opened up to him, but he was still trying to understand the rules and bounds of witchcraft. Magic didn’t just happen out of nothing. There was an exchange of energy when Ten pulled magic from the universe that sometimes resulted in wilting flowers or a massive headache. He raised his eyebrows. “Is it -- you know -- safe?”

“Is it magic, you mean?” Ten asked. They frowned, retreating with their eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“It’s just,” Kun said quickly, hating that he’d put that lost expression on Ten’s face with a single question, “it’s just that we moved out here to be away from all that. Among other things. I just want to be sure…”

“It’s fine, Kun,” Ten said. “We’re fine here! No one knows we’re here--”

“We’re literally having our housewarming in a couple weeks--”

“No one _concerning_ knows we’re here,” Ten amended, smiling. “We’ll be fine, and you’re going to be late for work, mister, if you don’t get moving soon.”

Kun twitched on his stool as he brought up the time on his phone. Ten was right. He had to hurry, or he’d miss the train into the city, and the next one wasn’t for another seventeen minutes after that, and Kun had discovered on a couple of mornings that taking the later train made him late by almost an hour. He was fairly certain time was playing tricks on him (magic, maybe?) because he didn’t know how the seventeen minute delay always translated into an extra forty minutes on his commute, but it did. He stood, bringing his bowl with him to the sink so that he could rinse it. On his way over, he paused by Ten, who tilted their head for Kun to kiss them on the cheek.

“Honey?” Kun asked. “Are we in need of anything else?”

Ten grinned. “Those chocolates I like, if you could.”

“Honey and chocolate,” Kun confirmed. “Anything for my little witch.”

.

As Kun turned the corner onto their street in his car, he couldn’t help but beam with pride as their house came into view. A four-bedroom starter home in a stubbornly upper-middle class neighborhood reflected that Kun had done well for himself in the world of business, steadily climbing up the ladder to the C-Suite of a boutique marketing firm headquartered in Chelsea. He had pretty much everything he’d ever wanted: a lovely home, a lovely spouse, and a lovely backyard where he could start to grow his vegetable garden. Kun dreamed of the day he’d be able to make fresh pasta sauce from tomatoes he’d _just_ plucked from the vine on his property.

After a long day at work in the office, it felt wonderful to be able to come home to Ten, who could usually be found holed up in their office hunched over their drawing tablet, furiously putting last-minute details into a design for a client. 

Kun pulled into their short driveway, put the car in park, and turned off the engine. Their front lush, green lawn was bisected by a walkway leading up to their front door from the sidewalk. Perfectly bloomed bright yellow tulips lined this walkway, flowers that Kun knew Ten carefully tended to during the day. Under their windows hung window boxes filled with more colorful blossoms. The house facade was a gleaming white, and their shutters and accents were black, aside from the front door, which was painted a brilliant, saturated red.

Their house was perfect. Their _home_ was perfect. It shone when compared to the houses beside it, almost like it was sucking the color right out of the neighboring houses’ paint coat, which was strange, given their house was white. 

Kun’s hand faltered on the door handle inside of his car as a thought flitted past his mind. Was it really that strange? He brushed it off though when he saw Ten’s face in the window, and how they lit up when they made eye contact with Kun despite the distance between them. Kun laughed quietly to himself and pushed open the car door, climbing out and heading inside.

Ten was waiting for him.

.

The sinkhole grew larger. It was all over the local news. What had once been a soft, undulating pit about the size of a car now swallowed up the kiddie playground of the park it seemed to be eating, like a creature with a very slow-moving mouth.

“Are you sure it’s not magic?” Kun asked Ten as they curled up together in bed that night, Kun scrolling past images of the sinkhole on his phone.

“I am _sure_ ,” Ten said, then cupped Kun's face in their hands and kissed him on the mouth until they were pressed so closely together that Kun’s glasses went askew and the bridge of them started to dig into his nose uncomfortably.

“Ten--”

“If it were magic,” Ten said after they broke from the kiss, “then it’s the fault of a very lazy -- or new -- witch. But it’s not magic, because I can sense those sorts of things. You’ve got to trust me.”

“I do,” Kun insisted as he darted forward to get a taste of Ten’s lips again. Honey.

“Good,” Ten murmured, satisfied grin on their face. They pulled Kun under the covers with them and kissed him harder.

.

In the peak of summer, on a clear and sunny weekend, Kun and Ten threw their housewarming party and welcomed both neighbors and friends from the city into their home. Kun let Ten plan and set up most of the entertainment, since all he wanted to do was work the grill in their backyard and feed people his homemade smashed-patty burgers with fresh pickles. Johnny joined him on the patio with two bottles of beer in hand, one of which he gave to Kun, who took it gratefully.

"The place looks like Versace," Johnny said in greeting as they clanked their beers together.

Kun sipped the frothy, carbonated drink and let it cool his mouth and throat. The sun was beaming down on him in the backyard since there was no cover over the patio. Sweat rolled down his back. "Ten wanted it to feel luxurious," Kun murmured around his drink. "They like to play trophy wife."

Johnny whistled lowly. Behind them, two children burst out from behind the screen door and ran out into the backyard with water guns, blasting each other. They were closely followed by a slightly-out-of-breath Jaehyun, whose blue t-shirt was soaked. "Johnny, babe, a little help here?" He paused by the grill to get a whiff of what Kun was cooking and visibly drooled. "That smells so good. I'm _starving_. Hey, Kun."

"Hey, Jaehyun," Kun greeted, bringing in the other man for a quick hug, avoiding the wet spots. "How are Hyuck and Jaemin?"

"We should not have let them bring their water guns," Jaehyun said apologetically. "They thought there was going to be a pool..."

Johnny sauntered off to chase after his kids, looking like a big, hulking bear lumbering about a field while mice ran circles around his feet. Kun laughed, watching their antics, and flipped a couple of sizzling patties on the grill as Johnny picked one child up and tucked him under his arm like he was a briefcase and not a wriggling, tiny human. Kun laid thick slices of cheddar over the meat to melt.

"Where's Hyuck?" Kun heard Johnny say as he spun around in circles and Hyuck shrieked with laughter under his arm. "Where is he?" Jaemin, meanwhile, had decided the best way to save his brother was to take down their father with the water gun, and sprayed Johnny without mercy.

"There _is_ a community pool a couple of blocks away," Kun said to Jaehyun. "But Ten would miss you if you left now."

"I know, it's been ages since we saw each other! How've you been?"

"You know, this and that. The house has kept us busy."

"I'll bet," Jaehyun said. "A place like this? Must need a lot of upkeep. I mean, it's just so _clean_. And perfect. Your lawn looks manicured by professionals. Do you hire people?"

This gave Kun pause. No, they didn't hire people, and yet the house was always pristine. Kun liked looking after the front yard and backyard -- he mowed the lawn once a week, trimmed the flowers in the boxes under their windows for weeds, and dutifully watered the seeds he'd planted in the vegetable bed he'd created in their backyard -- and he picked up after himself, but he didn't _clean_. He made a mental note to thank Ten, who had always been the neater one between them and actually enjoyed that kind of housework, for no doubt cleaning the house while he was out for the day at work. "Nah," Kun shook his head. "Ten just likes to keep things tidy."

Jaehyun sighed. "You're lucky. Nothing is ever actually clean when you have kids."

"That sounds...like Ten's nightmare, actually."

"Knowing you both, though, you'd find a way to do it. Be clean, cool, _and_ have kids. I mean, I'm married to Johnny, a thirty-five year old man-child. The apartment is chaos."

"You chose this life," Kun reminded him. The meat was done, and he slid the patties off the grill onto the buttered and lightly-charred buns he had at the ready on the side. "First dibs," he offered Jaehyun.

Slowly, the crowd increased in the backyard as the promise and scent of food whisked through the air. Kun was at his best and finest, feeding people and catching up on their lives as he built each burger or hot dog. Many more guests had things to say about the house, their lips loosened by the themed cocktail -- "Gold Ambrosia" -- Ten had concocted for their party.

"What do you use on your lawn?" one neighbor wanted to know. "Miracle-Gro? I've never gotten it to work for me...My lawn is just so sad, all year round."

"Did you have help designing the interior? Your living room looks straight out of a catalog," another inquired.

“Your marble counter tops are to _die_ for!”

“It’s so much bigger on the inside than it looks from outside. It must be in how you’re arranging your furniture, right?”

“Hey! Hey -- Kun!”

Kun turned just as a familiar-looking blur crashed into his side. A grin spread across his face while his neighbor from across the street hugged him briefly before using Kun’s body as a crutch to straighten himself up to standing. “Doyoung! You made it. Medium, right?”

“Kun, you’ve got to -- medium for the burger, yeah. Okay, this is gonna sound crazy, but, I swear I stumbled into your closet by the front door looking for the bathroom and walked into another world, Kun! Did you know that Narnia exists in your closet?”

Kun hesitated in handing Doyoung his burger, the smile faltering on his face. He took in the manic gleam in Doyoung’s sharp eyes, his flushed cheeks, his quick breaths. There was snow dusting the top of his hair and shoulders. Snow, in the middle of summer. Ten really had to be more careful.

“Our closet doesn’t go to other worlds, Doyoung,” Kun said carefully, eyes flitting around the backyard for his partner. “Maybe lay off the Ambrosia for a bit? I don’t actually know what Ten’s put in there…”

“It was _insane_ ,” Doyoung said, brushing the snow from his hair. It melted quickly on the patio. “I may have smoked a bit with Mark before coming over but I know I didn’t smoke _that_ much. Wait, you have to come with me--” Doyoung grabbed Kun by the wrist so suddenly that the spatula fell from Kun’s grasp.

“Doyoung!” Ten’s cheerful greeting made them both freeze. Kun looked at Ten in alarm, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation with his eyes and tense mouth movements. Revealing that Ten was a witch to mortals was a big no-no in the eyes of the Higher Ups in the magical world, and something that had caused Kun and Ten a lot of trouble (and some heartache) to navigate when they’d decided to fuck the rules of the magical world and get married and live happily ever after. One of the conditions of their marriage had been that Kun could be Ten’s only exception, or else. They never expanded on what 'or else' meant, but Kun reckoned they didn't have to.

Ten nodded to Kun, understanding and receiving his message. They smiled sweetly at Doyoung. “When did you get here?”

“Uh, about an hour ago,” Doyoung said, tugging lightly on Kun’s wrist. Kun stayed put where he was.

Ten’s expression morphed into one of curiosity and plastic guilt befitting of someone who cared a lot about being the perfect host at a party. Or playing at it. “Funny, I didn’t see you?”

“That’s because I was in the Narnia that’s in your closet, Ten,” Doyoung said flatly, rolling his eyes. “C’mon, I’ll show you. You have to know this exists? It’s weird, it feels like this isn’t the first time I’m seeing--”

Doyoung froze mid-step with his foot hanging in the air, took a deep, heaving breath, and then turned around to look at Kun with wide, blank eyes. “What was I just saying?” he asked. He looked down at Kun’s wrist in his hand and let it go with an awkward laugh.

Ten swooped in then, taking Doyoung by the elbow gently and guiding him back inside the house. Kun could hear Ten murmuring words of assurance to him. “You were just complaining about the heat,” Ten was saying. “It must be getting to you. Your head hurts, huh? Why don’t you sit and I’ll find Mark for you?”

Kun watched them go, worrying at his bottom lip and about what Doyoung had seen, but was distracted from his concerns by Hyuck and Jaemin, both of whom came up to Kun's thighs in height and were tugging on the fabric of his shorts, plaintive looks in their eyes and ketchup smeared all over their cheeks. "Can we have more pickles?" Hyuck asked when Kun noticed them and smiled.

"More pickles? Of course! Anything else?"

"Do you have ice cream?" Jaemin asked in a high voice, a little less certain in tone than Hyuck's. "Daddy said we could have ice cream."

"Did Daddy say that?" Johnny's shadow fell over them all, and Hyuck and Jaemin both shrieked in surprise and laughter, hiding behind Kun's legs and getting much too close to the grill for Kun's comfort.

"Hey! Boys, let's not play near the super hot grill, okay? Can you get on my other side please?"

The urgency in Kun's tone caught their attention, and the boys moved dutifully to Kun's other side, still eyeing their father warily with bright, amused grins on their cute cherub faces.

"Kun, haven't you eaten yet?" Johnny asked.

"Nah, just serving up plates."

"Well, everyone's been served. The host should eat!" Johnny moved into Kun's space and took the spatula right out of his hand, checking one of the remaining patties on the grill for done-ness before flipping it out onto a toasted bun. "Eat!"

With almost anyone else, Kun would have balked at being shoved away from the grill, but this was Johnny, who Kun's known since the first day of college, who used to hold his bangs back from his face whenever he'd had too much to drink and would ultimately find himself hunched over a toilet bowl in a random club in the city. He found himself smiling as a cloud shifted in front of the sun and threw much-needed shady relief over people still hanging out in the backyard. "Thanks, Johnny."

"I can do the grill if you can take the kids in for ice cream," Johnny offered. It was a backhanded offer and the two tasks were not equal in the slightest, which Kun recognized right away -- the kids went absolutely bonkers for ice cream -- and both of them knew it. But Kun loved Johnny, so he nodded, and the boys threw their hands up and screamed.

.

Inside the house, soft, jazzy music was playing from the speakers installed in the living room and tucked away in the corners of pretty much every other room, too. Kun held onto Hyuck's and Jaemin's little hands and they beelined for the kitchen, nearly knocking over Mrs. McKenzie, their neighbor two houses down, in the hallway and Hendery, Ten's intern, coming out of the bathroom.

"Ten?" Kun asked Hendery, who was drying his hands on his pants. Kun wanted to tell him that was what hand towels were for, but Hyuck and Jaemin were already pulling him away.

"Saw them in the kitchen!" Hendery managed to call after him.

"Thanks!"

Ten was indeed in the kitchen, at the center island, slicing lemons on their chopping block. They looked up when Kun arrived with the two little demons in tow. "Oh! My favorite guests! What are you doing in here, hm?"

"We want ice cream!" Hyuck tore himself away from Kun and shouted, roaring and pounding his chest like King Kong. "Ice! Cream!"

Ten winced but continued smiling, choosing to turn to Jaemin, who had detached himself from Kun calmly and was approaching Ten shyly.

"Do you have pistachio?" Jaemin asked.

"Pistachio? Like the nut? The green one?"

Jaemin nodded.

"Hm, we can certainly check."

Kun knew they didn't have pistachio-flavored ice cream. Kun himself didn't eat very much of the frozen dessert, and Ten was a chocolate-lover through and through, so Kun suspected that if they had anything, it would be various tubs of high-end chocolate. Nevertheless, Ten waltzed over to their refrigerator and drummed their fingers on the freezer door before opening it. They pulled out a small tub of pistachio ice cream.

"Like this?"

"Yeah!" Jaemin's eyes lit up with unrestrained joy.

"Oh! Oh! What about Chunky Monkey!" Hyuck asked, running to Ten and jumping up and down in front of them. "That's my favorite!"

"You're in luck -- it's in stock!" Ten closed the freezer door, drummed their fingers on it, and then opened it again. They took out a small container of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream. "Let's get these into some bowls, hm?"

Kun sighed and shook his head, already moving to the cabinets to take down two small bowls for the ice cream. "Ten, you know you shouldn't--"

"Oh, quiet, Kun," Ten hushed him with a glance. "It's just ice cream, and it's not even for me."

"Still..."

Kun let the subject drop when he watched Ten carefully scoop the boys' respective ice cream flavors into the little bowls on the counter, heart caught in his chest. It was tiny moments like these that made him remember how he was so in love with Ten and would do absolutely anything for them. Even something like face the Higher Ups again.

"Sprinkles?" Ten asked Hyuck and Jaemin.

"Yeah!"

Ten clapped their hands together and then, with one hand, rubbed their thumb against their fingers like they were sprinkling finishing salt over a dish, only instead of salt, rainbow sprinkles appeared out of nowhere and fell over the ice cream. "It's just sprinkles," they said under their breath when they felt Kun staring.

"Why do I get the feeling it's not just the ice cream and the sprinkles, Ten?" Kun asked. "What happened with Doyoung?"

Ten's eyes flicked up to meet his, and for a moment, Kun swore he saw actual galaxies swirling in them. Then they stooped down to give Hyuck and Jaemin their bowls, and Hendery appeared in the doorway.

"Why don't you go with Hendery to find your dads and share the ice cream with them?" Ten suggested to the kids. Both nodded eagerly and scampered off with Hendery, who looked a bit bewildered but went with it, leaving Kun alone with Ten in the kitchen. Music, conversation, and laughter from their guests in the living room faded into the background. "We can talk freely. Anyone listening will hear us talking about what we want to do with the backyard."

"What do we want to do with the backyard?"

"Expand your little vegetable garden, of course," Ten said sweetly. They put the ice cream back into the freezer, but Kun knew in the morning the tubs would no longer be there. Ten came back around the island and sidled up next to Kun, making sure their hips were touching. "Don't you want more space out there? And you want to start composting. We'll need to figure that out..."

"Well, composting won't be that hard. We'll just need to find a good compost starter and -- wait, you're distracting me! Don't distract me."

Ten batted their eyelashes and grinned cheekily. "It was worth a shot," they said breezily.

"You're doing magic," Kun accused.

Ten pouted, and wow was Kun a sucker for that pout. His knees weakened at the sight and his mouth actually pooled with saliva. "Just around the house," Ten admitted. "It's nothing big..."

"You said you'd try to keep it under wraps! We moved to get away from the history you had in the city with the Higher Ups. You wanted to be away from their prying eyes! What do you think will happen if our neighbors find out what you can do?"

"We'll wipe their memories, I suspect." Ten shrugged, and Kun groaned in exasperation.

"I meant to you. What do you think the Higher Ups will do to you? I don't think it's a three-strikes-and-you're-out kind of thing. They made it seem like...like it would be really serious if any other mortals knew you were a witch."

"You worried about me, baby?"

"I mean, yeah? Kinda? It's what I signed up for."

Ten cooed at him, cupping their hands around Kun's cheeks and plopping a big kiss onto Kun's lips. "I love you," Ten said. "I promise I am being so safe and careful. The closet thing -- Doyoung -- that was an accident. I took care of it. It won't happen again." Ten kissed him again, and Kun's mind went a little fuzzy, but he knew there was still something else. Something that mattered. What was it...?

"What did Doyoung mean, this wasn’t the first time?”

"What?" Ten asked quietly, still kissing Kun and making a pleasant tingle flicker all over Kun's skin from the sweet, light pressure and touch of their lips.

"He said he felt like this wasn't the first time he was seeing something like this."

Ten exhaled as they pulled away. The loss of their kisses felt as wrong as pulling apart two connected magnets, and Kun whined from the back of his throat. Ten just patted him on the cheek, looking him in the eyes.

“Okay, don’t be mad…”

.

Ten had been fixing the house up with magic.

The perfect coat of paint outside? Magic.

The gutters that never needed cleaning? Magic.

The water streaming out of the shower always at the perfect temperature? Magic.

Kun had thought that the front lawn, at least, was beautiful because of his efforts, but no. It was beautiful despite them, because Ten had magicked the grass to remain weedless and the perfect deep, spring green well into the summer, long past the week when their neighbors’ lawns dried up under the relentless sun and turned brown and yellow in patches.

Kun sighed in frustration for the fifth time in the fifteen minutes since their last guest had left their house when the party ended, not that Ten could hear the sound over Kun vacuuming the carpet in the living room. The roar of the machine drowned out everything but Kun’s racing -- slightly spiraling -- thoughts.

How could Ten be so careless? Kun knew that magic was a part of Ten and Ten’s life, and he’d never even think about asking Ten to stop witching around completely, but every spell Ten wove and every potion Ten brewed put them at greater risk for exposure, and exposure meant the Higher Ups having a reason to come knocking on their doors. Kun thought when they’d moved away from the city and into the suburbs that Ten would be okay with the minor, private spells -- their selection of tea never diminishing, silverware that never needed organizing, shelves that never needed dusting -- but clearly Ten was itching to do more.

Their house looked incredible with no amount of physical labor or work actually put into it, and that didn't sit right in Kun's gut. He thought again of the sinkhole in the park and wondered if Ten was telling him the truth. Ten was clearly doing more magic than Kun had thought, and magic had consequences.

He turned off the vacuum and the machine quieted to a purr before tapering off into silence. As he was coiling up the electrical cord around the back, Ten’s shadow fell over his squatting form.

“Are you still angry, Kun?” Ten asked, their voice small.

“I am a little angry,” Kun admitted, standing and grimacing when his knees creaked in protest. He turned to look at Ten, who was wringing their hands together in worry. Ten's forehead creased in concern was not a common sight to Kun, and he immediately reached out to take Ten's hands into his own. "But not that angry, love. I wish you'd told me--"

"Doyoung won't remember a thing," Ten said quickly. They pressed themselves into Kun's space, throwing their arms around Kun's waist. "I promise. And I'll be more careful from now on."

Kun frowned. It was the same sort of thing he'd heard from Ten about an hour ago, when he'd first learned that Ten was fixing up the house with spells. "It's not just that," Kun said. The little bit of anger at having the wool pulled over his eyes had already dissipated, leaving behind a unique sense of disappointment that Kun had never experienced before. He tried to put it into words. "I don't -- I don't really care about your magic."

Ten gasped audibly, arms tightening around Kun's waist as their eyes narrowed and cheeks darkened. Kun backpedaled. "Wait, not that. I do care about your magic. I don't care that you do it. I like that it's a part of you. I like that. I just...I wanted this house to be ours."

"It _is_ ours." Ten blinked at him owlishly, adorably confused, and Kun sighed because he knew he wasn't explaining this well. He was just getting started, and he was nervous that telling Ten about the uncomfortable feeling in his gut because of Ten fixing up the house with magic would upset the love of his life, who might read a feeling like that as Kun not wanting Ten to do magic at all. That was definitely not the case.

He loved Ten's magic. He thought it was entirely inhumane for the Higher Ups to be so stringent in their regulation of Ten's magic just because they'd fallen in love and gotten married, but that was a different conversation, and for another time. This was about the home he'd wanted them to build together.

Kun had been hoping to fix up the house on the weekends with Ten. He wanted to paint the walls with Ten. He wanted to climb up a rickety ladder with Ten holding onto the base below while he cleaned the gutters. He wanted to fix the sticky windows on the second floor and he wanted to de-weed the backyard with his own hands, getting dirt under his fingernails and caked into his nail beds. He wanted them both to put their sweat and labor into the house as they turned it into the place where their love -- and family -- would only continue to grow.

Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was a bit backwards of Kun to crave those traditional, idyllic, movie-like scenes of domesticity. He knew, logically, that not having Ten hold onto the ladder while he cleaned the gutters didn’t mean that Ten didn’t love him, but it was still something he'd wanted, and up until today, he'd thought Ten had wanted these things, too. They talked about their life before moving out here. Ten had even been excited at the idea of playing mortal on the weekends and doing things the hard way!

"It’s ours," Kun agreed finally, knowing the silence between them had dragged on too long when Ten whimpered a bit and laid their cheek on Kun's shoulder, pressing their chests close together. "It is. But I had wanted to be a part of making it ours, too."

"What does that even mean, Kun? We took out a mortgage together. You're stuck with me forever."

Kun chuckled and felt lighter when Ten giggled in response. "It's stupid..."

"Tell me."

"I just...kinda wanted to be a handy man around the house, I guess." Kun wound his fingers through Ten's hair at the back of their skull and drew Ten's face up for a quick kiss. "It's dumb, I know--"

"It's not dumb to want to feel useful," Ten said.

And that was the crux of it, wasn't it? A weight lifted from Kun's shoulders at Ten being able to identify and verbalize what he was feeling so quickly. Ten was always so good at reading him. He kissed Ten again, this time on the tip of their nose. "I wanted to try my hand at fixing the sink," Kun admitted. "Or throwing up wallpaper. I know you can do these things in an instant, but I -- I just want to do them together. Or at least to feel like I've contributed, you know?"

"You do contribute, Kun! You contribute so much. I _love_ you. You -- you care about the front lawn, and you tend to your vegetables, and you say ‘hi’ to Doyoung every morning -- Merlin knows _why_ \-- and you! Picked the couch in the living room!” Ten was pink in the face and breathing a little heavily by the time they finished, and Kun was trying hard not to laugh in the face of their sincere effort. Merlin, he loved Ten, too. 

“I can bust up the sink," Ten offered. "You could try to fix it. I'd do that for you."

“You don’t have to do that,” Kun whispered. He felt enchanted by the way Ten’s eyelashes fluttered over the tops of their cheeks every time they blinked and tightened an arm around Ten’s trim waist, flattening his hand against the small of Ten’s back. Ten’s sharp intake of breath was the sexiest thing Kun had ever heard.

“Or you could fix something else,” Ten said, voice dropping into a sultry purr. “I’ve got a lot of things you could fix. Maybe even a pipe for you to check out...”

“Yeah? I could do that. Check out your pipes.”

“Mm, yeah like, my internal plumbing--”

Kun snorted against Ten’s lips. “It was good until you said that--”

“Oh? I’ll go back to pipes--!”

The rest of what Ten was saying was muffled by the kiss they shared. Kun felt the heat of the afternoon sun coming in through their window warming his back and deepened the kiss when Ten’s small hands stroked through the warmth, leaving trails of golden heat in their wake. 

“I want to have this life with you,” Kun gasped as Ten’s impatient hands slid under his shirt. He walked them slowly into the couch, pushing and pushing until Ten fell onto their back on the cushions, their smile like a dream, their skin glowing, and Kun fell over them. “I want this with you, in our lovely home in the suburbs, starting and raising a family. Making friends, throwing barbecues in the backyard.”

“I want that, too, Kun,” Ten assured him quietly. The expression on their face was the same expression they held when they were both standing in front of Sicheng, their friend and an ordained minister, exchanging vows: open and honest, raw and vulnerable, exceedingly happy. Kun felt like his heart had doubled in size in his chest as he looked upon Ten with calm, radiant love. “We’ll have those things. I promise.” 

They kissed until the sun went down. They had all the time in the world.

.

Kun woke to Ten’s face buried in his neck, Ten’s hair tickling Kun’s nose. He stretched and yawned, feeling how the blankets and sheets slid against his naked skin. On top of him, Ten whined quietly and rolled over onto their back, still snoring. 

Kun’s phone chimed with a notification. He reached for it and turned on the screen.

The sinkhole had swallowed the park.

“Ten,” Kun whispered. “Ten, wake up.”

“What?” Ten mumbled.

“The sinkhole got bigger,” Kun said, showing them the image on his phone. Ten squinted as the screen was brought too close to their face and hissed against the sudden brightness accosting their eyes. 

“Did it?” Ten simply rolled over onto their other side and pulled the blanket up higher over their shoulders.

Kun felt a stone drop in his stomach. “Promise me you’re not responsible for the sinkhole,” he said.

Ten rolled back toward him, blinking themself awake. “Baby,” Ten said, their voice still scratchy with sleep, “I promise you I am not responsible for the sinkhole. I -- I _might_ be responsible for the state of Mr. Yeo’s lawn, though.” They ducked their eyes in shame. “That’s it, I promise.”

Mr. Yeo. Kun thought back to their party yesterday, and recognized Mr. Yeo as one of the guests who came up to Kun to ask him about his lawn. Kun’s jaw fell open. “You didn’t.”

“His lawn was _already_ sad. I didn’t think he’d notice!”

“You will stop torturing that poor man’s lawn,” Kun said.

“I already have. I think I’ll target Doyoung next.”

“Ten!” 

Ten only grinned and nuzzled their face into Kun’s chest like a sleepy kitten, and Kun couldn’t find it in himself to argue more. Besides, maybe Ten was right. Today it was Mr. Yeo’s lawn, and tomorrow it would be Doyoung’s squeaky garage door. These were little, harmless things to consider in return for silverware that never needed organizing and shelves that never needed dusting.

But…

“What about the sinkhole, though?”

Ten’s breath tickled Kun’s skin when they exhaled. “You won’t let this go, will you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Fine, I’ll look for the newbie, baby witch responsible for the sinkhole and set them straight. Happy?”

Kun wanted to sit up in triumph but was hindered by Ten’s weight on his chest. He hugged Ten very tightly instead. “So I was right! It _was_ magic! I’m getting pretty good at recognizing, aren’t I?”

“You are,” Ten said with a laugh. Kun could feel their smile on his skin. “Seems there’s no bewitching you.”

.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you prompter for the prompt! this was fun to write and i hope you liked it.
> 
> thanks for reading! please leave kudos and comments <3


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